In the manufacture of a semiconductor device, there has been practiced to polish a film deposited on the semiconductor substrate by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) using a CMP slurry. The CMP slurry that has been conventionally employed is formed of, for example, a dispersion containing abrasive grain wherein pure water is employed as a dispersion medium. When CMP, a CMP slurry is fed in the vicinity of central portion of a rotating polishing pad. The CMP slurry thus fed spreads to the outer peripheral region of the polishing pad by centrifugal force, thereby the CMP slurry is utilized for the polishing of a film which is being contacted with the polishing pad.
All of the CMP slurry that has been fed to the polishing pad is not necessarily contribute to the polishing of the film to be polished. Since the CMP slurry is low in viscosity and part of the CMP slurry is discharge outside the polishing pad, the CMP slurry employed in the prior art is not utilized effectively.
If it is possible to retain the CMP slurry on the polishing pad without being discharged from the polishing pad, the quantity of CMP slurry to be used can be reduced, thus leading to the improvement of utilization efficiency of the CMP slurry.